With the state’s year 12s soon to start their mock exams, I thought it opportune to go back and have a look at how our country high schools are performing.

Some may recall an article I wrote in 2020, ‘Country High Schools = F Fail’ and I wondered if there has been any improvement.

My previous article was based on the annual league table which ranked all the schools based on performance.

Unfortunately, the government, after 15 years of reporting, decreed it will no longer compile a list ranking the schools based on the median ATAR achieved by each school.

According to the WA Secondary School Executives Association president, Armando Giglia, “People should find out about the school by going to the school, not a ranking of median ATAR which means absolutely nothing.

“The ranking wasn’t a fair playing field and wasn’t reflective of good education but was more of a business promotion for private schools – that’s about all it was.”

Somehow this does not pass the front bar of the pub test. 

Governments don’t provide information when it is bad news.  And as you will read below, it is bad news indeed, this Labor government is failing to deliver good educational outcomes for country high school students. Something every parent has the right to know.

While we don’t have the 2021 results, we can compare the last full year of the previous Liberal National government, being 2016, with 2020 which takes us through the first four years of the McGowan government, enough for them to wear the results.

The first thing to note is the median ranking only includes schools where more than 20 students completed four or more ATAR subjects during Year 12.

As a result, there was no data available for Moora and Katanning, but past results are not good.

Also to note is the dwindling number of WA students prepared to tackle some of the hardest Year 12 subjects that require them to sit exams.

In total, less than half the 26,600 year 12s, just 46.6 per cent, sat four or more ATAR exams last year allowing them to be eligible for an ATAR score required to enter university.

Let’s start by tracking the ATAR progress of the key broadacre super towns with residential colleges.

Note that only Esperance has shown any improvement, their result is stable at 79.9 but it is below the magic 80 cut off mark required for entry into UWA.

Interestingly most of the South West coastal towns hit the 80 mark with Bunbury 83.95, Denmark 83.55, Margaret River 82.45, Australind 82.15 and Manjimup 80.05, which tells me the grain belt high schools are underperforming.

This is not good when it comes to attracting and retaining the local workforce or service providers, everyone from mechanics, doctors and teachers?

It means we are ending up like the mining industry where people up stumps and move to where the better schools are when their kids hit high school.

Surprisingly with all their money and size, the mining towns are performing worse than the farming towns.

Check out the 2020 results in some of the riches regional towns in Australia, under Labor they have all gone backwards.

Not one of these three schools made the 80 cut off, which is a disgrace considering the amount of royalties this government has been taking out of these communities, not to mention swiping the annual billion dollar Royalties for Regions fund.

This probably helps explain the ongoing increase in private school enrolments with 1 in 3 children now attending a non-government school.

It also helps explain the movement of people back to Perth to find a good public school when their kids hit high school.

Let’s now look at the results of the better public schools in Perth: Melville 82.3; Mount Lawley 83.6; Churchlands 83.7; and Shenton 86.9. All good results not much different to the South West.

Now let’s look at the outer suburbs of Perth: Wanneroo 63.35; Ellenbrook 66.25; Southern River 66. Not good when these schools have no end of teachers to choose from.

Note how those achieving results above 80 are all linked to suburbs where the average house price exceeds $1 million.  

So, assuming not  everyone can afford the elite boarding schools or to move to Melville, what are the private school options and how good are they?

First thing to note is every one of these towns has an 80+ ATAR average school to choose from and all the schools are improving.

The schools range in cost from $5000 to Bunbury Grammar $15,000 and Albany Grammar $22,000, but then they are cheaper than a house in Melville or sending the kids to Hale 90.35 and MLC 90.55 at $30,000 each (plus boarding).

But not every parent can afford even to pay any fees, so what’s the solution for fixing our country high schools, aside from sacking the Minister and completely overhauling the system?  

A possible quick fix is offering each regional public high school an additional $3m/pa and the flexibility to hire, fire and double the salary of a select few brilliant teachers who can concentrate on cranking good results out of those kids that are motivated to achieve.

With 35 public high schools in the regions, the Minister for Regional Development could have funded this $100m out of the old R for R bucket if it still existed.

In fact, as a regional development initiative, it would have been the one thing that would leave a lasting legacy.

Unfortunately, the government is more interested in funding metro net and building ring roads than supporting country kids.

In the old days, high schools like Northam excelled at sending kids to university with many a country kid staying in the residential college.

But today there is no point sending your budding doctor or lawyer to a residential college that is full of kids that are not doing the heavy ATAR subjects or a high school which lacks the teachers to get you the big marks needed to get into a competitive university place. 

Being the only student in the hut studying methods, chemistry and physics while everyone else is doing metal work is not ideal.

The same thing applies if you are looking at the Rotary Residential college in Perth ($18,500), I’m afraid it is not the answer as it is linked to Kent Street High in Vic Park which has an average ATAR of 74.65.

This is nowhere near that 80 cut off set as the entry level for UWA and nowhere near the results the top private or public schools are consistently generating.  Pity Rotary did not build the college next to Rossmoyne High 88.4, as it would be overflowing.

For the battlers, the bankrupt, the middle class and the bloody minded that refuse to send their kids to a religious private school and are not interested in home schooling all is not lost.

Little John and Jane from the bush can still end up with a degree but they might not be sitting next to Le Ping (CCGS) and Constance (PLC) who have been glad handed all the way into their UWA medicine and law schools. 

If your son or daughter wants to enter a really competitive field at a prestigious sandstone university, then it’s dog eat dog competitive requiring a big ATAR result doing the really hard subjects.

For example, UWA Medicine requires a ATAR of 99 and Law 98, which means those students are in the top 1 and 2% of the state, something disproportionately few students from government regional high schools achieve.

However, the pathway to university is many and varied. Back in the mid 1980s, 1 in 9 school students made it into university, today it’s 4 out of 10. In fact, 3 out of 4 of those will have an ATAR below 70 and those with a minority link will find themselves welcomed with open arms.

So, if you as the proud parent are not looking for a top silk or surgeon in the family and are happy to see the next generation undertake a Bachelor of Arts majoring in communications,  then the world is their oyster.

Just don’t expect them to be eating oysters too often once they graduate as we now have far too many grads with useless degrees with Journalism right up there at the top, which makes for an expensive three years.

Today the price of a Bachelor’s degree ranges between $5,000 and $15,000 per annum (note the similarity with private school fees) all depending on how badly the government decides we need more graduates in specific areas.

 For example, your Primary Teaching degree will cost $6,804 pa, Ag Science $9698, Nursing $9698, Medicine $8,825, Law $11,355, Journalism $14,600. Note the more unemployable you are at the end, the higher the fees (Law grads also struggle to get jobs).

Over 3 – 6 years most degrees cost between $25,000 – $60,000.  Which means it will take a full year on the mines not spending a cent to pay off that Journalism degree.

Not that the universities care, they love this money flow, so they tend not to look too hard at ATAR results, preferring to stuff lecture theatres full of students who are way out of their depth.

So, if your student comes home and wants to do a degree in Transcendental Communications, Greek Archaeology or Political Science (my degree) tell them to skip the study, sign up to audible books, go get a job on the mines and self-educate.

Be aware that while it is easy to get into science based degrees like Nursing at ECU who have set a minimum ATAR of 70, the attrition rate is up to 50% and the lower the ATAR the less likely the student is to pass.

Entry Engineering is also a relatively low 70 or 80, with often no prerequisites for maths, physics and chemistry. Forget doing the crash 14 week bridging course cramming all of year 11 and 12 into semester one, the failure rate of country kids is off the scale. 

The solution is to make the kids do the hard stuff at school.  Problem is too many small schools have no or unqualified specialist science and maths teachers, or they simply cannot attract and retain good teachers.  

Again, the solution is to attend a big school with a solid ATAR average or go private; at least then you have half a chance of getting good teachers.

As to how many will pass, well the stats are that two out of three students will complete their degree, unless they are studying part time when only one out of three get to the end to wear the funny hat and gown.  Hint, if they did not do well at school, they will struggle at university.

Which takes me back to where I began.  Our regional schools are failing us badly, the government is hiding the stats and the only real option is to go private.

None of this is to blame the teachers, they also suffer from a system that does not reward excellence, is overburdened with bureaucracy and has to deal with students who don’t want to be there.

We know the public schools can deliver as we can see the results of the South West schools. It’s time to help all the other county schools to get more kids into Medicine, Law, Teaching, Nursing or, God forbid, Journalism.